Last time, I talked about the night I was introduced to industrial music by a friend, and mentioned that there was some KMFDM included in that introduction. While I won't be making this series a chronological listing of albums as I found them or anything, I figured I'd start off with the three I remember from that night.

![naive.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaN3cqvAtMGLcAWYqJDxUxCHT77mTBb2rjtyWdgufhfri/naive.jpg)

While not quite as far-out sound-wise from music I'd heard before as Skinny Puppy was, this one still had a definite impact. I remember being especially struck by the combination of dancey electronic stuff like the title track and heavier stuff like "Godlike". That would, of course, be a recurring theme as I got further into this industrial thing, but it was new to me, and I loved it. 

KMFDM - Naïve on Bandcamp: https://kmfdm.bandcamp.com/album/na-ve

As with Skinny Puppy and <i>Too Dark Park</i>, I consider this a standout album for KMFDM. I think I prefer their follow-up, <i>Money</i>, but just barely. That said, I think <i>Naïve</i> holds a similar place in KMFDM's catalog to the one <i>Too Dark Park</i> holds for Skinny Puppy. That is, I'd say it's both a bit heavier at times, and a bit more sophisticated than their earlier work. Also, like Skinny Puppy, I think it's pretty obvious that KMFDM has been a huge influence on bands that followed. When it comes to industrial dance music, this is one of the first bands I think of, for sure. It's hard for me to pick favorite tracks on this album, as I think the whole thing is really damn good. If I were forced though, I guess I'd say "Piggybank", "Friede (Remix)" and "Liebeslied" are definitely contenders.

Speaking of "Liebeslied", it's worth noting that the unauthorized use of samples from "Carmina Burana" in that track caused some copyright issues that ended up with the original version of the album getting pulled, and left it out of print for over a decade. There have since been a couple of reissues, minus the offending samples. The first was <i>Naïve/Hell to Go</i> in 1994, which had remixed versions of "Liebeslied", "Go to Hell", "Virus", "Godlike", and "Die Now-Live Later", and removed the live version of "Disgust". In 2006, another version was released (just called <i>Naïve</i> again), which combined most of the orginal tracks, except for an edited version of "Liebeslied", and the <i>Hell To Go</i> remixes. This is pretty cool, as I quite like those remixes, but it's also nice to see the original versions of those tracks (and the live version of "Disgust") available again. This is the version that is available at the above link.

As time has passed, I listen to KMFDM less than I once did. Not that I don't still love them, it's more that I've found so many other things to love also. However, this is definitely a classic, and will always hold a special place in my mind.